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SPORTS AND PASTIMES. r

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WORK AND WORKERS. I

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WORK AND WORKERS. I The special telegraph staffs of the Post Office have a grievance as well as the sorting clerks. They brought forward their com- plaints some weeks ago. A meeting of the staff which is located in Manchester has been held to consider what action might be taken to obtain redress. These telegraphists are em- ployed mainly to travel to the various places in their district when special events, such as big political meetings, cricket and football matches, or race meetings, make it necessary to supplement the local post office staffs by men who are accustomed to deal with a rush of work. These special staffs consist of men of wide experience and proved ability, and it has been the custom up to the present to make an allowance of 6d. an hour when employed on travelling duty, to cover the expenses of board and lodgings, or refreshments when the duty does not extend beyond a day. It has been proposed to reduce this allowance to 4d. an hour. The telegraphists naturally point out that, having regard to the increased cost of living, the 6d. allowance is only sufficient to enable them to live decently when away from home. The proposal to reduce the amount is likely to be strongly opposed, says the Man- chester Guardian, and it is said that in some centres men are asking to be taken off the special duty list. on the ground that they will be out of pocket if the revised allowance comes into operation- No doubt the protest will be effectual. Notice has been posted at the Alice Colliery, near Maryport, to terminate all con- tracts in the Statey seam at the expiration of fourteen days. This will throw sixty men and boys idle. The owners had approached the men for a reduction of 4d. per ton, which the men had refused to concede on the ground that it was much too large. The closing of collieries and seams in the last few months has thrown over 300 men out of work in the Maryport district, and there has been an exodus into otrcoal-mining districts. Five hundred women and children, hunger marchers from all parts of South London, shivering in the north-east wind, were pro- vided with food on Saturday evening for the week-end. They were the wives and children of the men involved in the London building trade dispute, and they walked miles through sunless streets to "Brixton for loaves and pro visions supplied through the agency of the South London Women and Children Fund, at headquarters there. The Licensed Vehicle Workers' Benevolent Society some time ago began dispensing necessities to these stricken families, and when unable to cope alone with the acute distress broadened the basis of ap- peal by forming the Women and Children's Fund. Five hundred parcels of provisions and 1,000 loaves were divided among 500 families. Only South London homes have been aided so far, and these exceed 1,000 in number. It is computed that there are 4,000 labourers' families in London suffering dire want, and the ultimate aim is to provide food for every starving family. Mr. J. H.. Thomas, M.P., speaking at a meeting of railwaymen at Newport (Mon.), on Sunday night, declared his belief that 1914 was going to be a year which would revolu- tionise the position of railwaymen. With re- ference to the meetings of the Transport Workers, Miners, and the Railwaymen's Union, he said they had come to the conclu- sion that they were wasting each other's money and energy by independent strikes, and they had arrived at an agreement. It meant that the full power Of those three bodies would be so concentrated that, instead of the miners having a dispute in March and throwing the railwaymen out, the railway- men having a dispute in November and throwing the miners out, they would try to arrange for their disputes and agreements to commence and end at the same time. There were within the limits of that agreement won- derful possibilities. It did not mean that they as a union were committed to the sym- pathetic strike., because if once that policy were adopted railway men would always be out, but the power to strike was the one weapon which enabled them to meet the capitalists OH equal terms. A speaker at a Southampton Labour meet- ing suggested that if, as some employers as- serted, a man was too old to work because his hair was turning grey, he was also too old to pay rent, rates, and taxes, and ought to have nn Old-Age Pension without question .as to age or means. Mr. Hughes, of Messrs. -Hughes Bolckow Company, battleship breakers, speaking at a gathering of North-country commercial men on board the battleship Renown at Blytli, said that when foreigners bought an obsolete ship they paid what wages they liked in break- ing her up. English firms were under contract to pay trade union rates of wages. The Re- nown was the only battleship purchased by a British firm at the recent Portsmouth sale. Four others went aboard, and with them £ 25,000 in wages. The Admiralty ought to stipulate that all ships must be dismantled in England, and thus cause money to be distri- buted amongst workmen at home. In that case English firms noW not iear :any com- petition. Following an increase g.raiited by Messrs. Vickers to the engineers employed at the Bar- row Island shipyard of Is. per .week, with a further Is. in October next, the Amalgamated Society of Engineers has been dealing with other employers of engineers in Barrow, with the result that six large firms have agreed to grant increases as follows: Fitters from 36s. to 38s., turners 37s. to 39s., machine men ;33s. to 35s. per week. A grant of Is. per week has just been granted, and the second lis. advance will be given ooa ilke first pay- iday in October next. 'By Provisional Orders, confirmed last -Sessioii by Parliament, the application of the Trade Boards Act was extended to certain additional trades, including sugar confec- tionery and food preserving. Regulations made by the Board of Trade, after consulting 'persons affected, provide for the establish- ment in Great Britain and Ireland of Trade Boards for sugar confectionery and food pre- serving. In accordance with the regulations, a Trade Board was recently established for this trade in Great Britain, and the Board of Trade now announce that they have formed a separate Trade Board for the trade in ques- tion in Ireland, consisting of three members (persons unconnected with the trade) ap- pointed by the Board of Trade, together with nine repr* sentatives of employers and nine representatives of workers. The principal duty of the Trade Board will be to fix the minimum rates of wages wliicTi may be paid to work- people in the trade in Ireland. The Board of Trade, it is notified in the London (iazette, propose to make a special order extending the provisions of the unem- ployment section of the National Insurance Act to workmen in the trade of. repairing works of construction other than roads and the permanent-way of railways, subject to a modification also to the trade of saw-milling, including machine woodwork, whether car- ried on in connection with any insured trade or not. The term of office of the Lace Finishing Trade Board, established on September 6th, 1910, having expired, the Board of Trade have made regulations with respect to the constitution and proceedings of a Trade Board for machine-made lace and net finish- ing, other than the finishing of the product of plain net machines, but including the finishing of hair nets, veilings, and quillings, whether made on plain net or other machines. In accordance with the above regulations, a Trade Board has been estab- lished for the period of three years commenc- ing May 14th, 1914, and thereafter until dis- solved by order of the Board of Trade. The Trade Board consists of three members (per- sons unconnected with the trade) appointed by the Board of Trade, together with eight representatives of employers and eight repre' sentatives of workers.

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